Submarine Hunting for MH370 Completes First Full Mission

By Edward Johnson and Alan Levin -
Apr 17, 2014

An unmanned submarine trolling for
the missing Malaysian Air plane completed its first full
mission, as investigators sought to narrow the underwater search
area after aircraft and ships failed to find any debris.

The Bluefin-21 has searched 90 square kilometers (35 square
miles) of ocean floor and data downloaded from its latest trip
is being analyzed, Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre
said. Technical issues had cut short two earlier sorties. As
many as 12 aircraft and 11 ships will continue to comb the
Indian Ocean today for signs of debris.

Scouring the Indian Ocean surface northwest of Australia
will continue over the Easter weekend, and the underwater search
has been “significantly narrowed,” with the use of accoustic
analysis creating a more “more focused’ area, the JACC said. At
41 days, the hunt for Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 with
239 people on board, is the longest search for a missing
passenger jet in modern aviation history.

``This represents the best lead we have in relation to
missing flight MH370 and where the current underwater search
efforts are being pursued to their completion so we can either
confirm or discount the area as the final resting place of
MH370,'' JACC said in a release.

Next Mission

The Bluefin-21, which uses side-scan sonar to capture
images of the ocean bottom, is pivotal to the search with the
batteries in the aircraft’s black boxes now likely dead. The
sonar bounces sound waves off the bottom to create images of
terrain. It’s supposed to be deployed for 24 hours at a time.

Its first foray was cut short after a built-in safety
feature forced it to return to the surface after it dived deeper
than its operating limit of 4,500 meters. The second dive was
interrupted by a minor battery malfunction, according to Jim
Gibson, general manager of Phoenix International Holdings Inc.,
the company performing the search under contract to the U.S.
Navy.

The underwater sonar search of an area close to where pings
similar to those from black box emergency beacons were heard
will also continue, JACC said.

Oil Slick

Data retrieved so far hasn’t revealed any significant
objects. The analysis of an oil slick found over the weekend in
the current search area also showed the substance didn’t come
from an aircraft engine or hydraulic fluid, JACC said.

No audio pulses have been detected since April 8,
suggesting the aircraft’s black boxes have run out of battery
power. The crash-proof recorders are crucial to determining why
the Malaysian Airline System Bhd. jet vanished en route to
Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, reversing course and flying into some
of the world’s most remote ocean waters.

Scouring the ocean surface for debris with planes and ships
will be called off in two to three days as the chance of any
floating material being recovered has “greatly diminished,”
retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who heads the JACC,
said at a press conference in Perth April 14.